Six Feet Under just kicked my ass (sorry for all the poop type talk lately--I'm starting to feel like dooce;). That's the only way I can think to say it. That's actually how I did say it when I called Suzanne and some friends. I'd just finished the third season (the last and final season just ended last week, sadly), and the season finale brought together two things I've been thinking about for years now. In that episode Claire goes to find her father's grave. When she arrives there's like a carnival going on in the cemetary. "What's going on here?", Claire says. Her father replies, "It's always like this". They talk a little, then she sees someone that disappeared in the first season. He talks about how life on earth wasn't a good environment, but now that he's dead he feels like he has a purpose. And he's doing service, making up for what he didn't, couldn't, do in this world. THEN, Claire talks about how being with her baby niece she gets to experience the "eternal youngness" of things all over again.THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT! How this world isn't everything, how we can develop in the next world and do service (that's how I understand it now), even why people die. They've done all they can in this world. It's as simple as that. I used to get so bogged down in thinking this life was IT, that's all. I lost a lot of my anxiety once I started to see life as this eternal continuum. And then, with Amia here, there's this crazy interplay of life and death, birth and renewal.It was so neat to see these ideas in conjunction with each other, and on the little screen to boot. It felt so...validating. To know that there's people out there, that I don't even know, that are approaching life in similar ways.Does anyone know why you can't just get HBO without getting every other channel in existence?

Clue #1) Body waste, blood, and mucus have become so commonplace that they no longer really register as anything extraordinary and, in fact, become legitimate topics of conversation.

Clue #2) The process discussed in clue #1 becomes so ingrained that one inadvertently wears, um...ahem (nervous giggle), fecal matter on one's clothes for close to an hour. And once said object is noticed it's not really that much of a surprise or cause for alarm.

Note: In fairness to the person discussed above, WHOEVER they may be, it was a dark shirt, they were tired, and they were making a mad rush to the beach when note of the offense was taken.

This picture might just end up on a Jones soda bottle in a Panera near you. Anya submitted several from this series, and 2 of them are Staff Picks, meaning that they're in the finals! If this pic wins not only will Anya get a digital camera and other miscellanies, but we'll also have Amia's little face all over the country! I'll definitely let ya'll know how this goes down.

Oh, and get this. We just got tickets to Oprah. Yeah, the famous lady on TV and on that one magazine. September 7. What did we do that the universe has decided to bless us so bountifully? Hmmm...I did think about giving blood once last week...

I've just returned from very sunny, very hot Cambridge. I loved meeting tons of wonderful people at the Association for Baha'i Studies conference, seeing the guy juggle knives upside down (yes, that's right, I said upside down), and perhaps most of all spend some beeyootifull time with one Katrinka H., one of my bestest friends. Very healing and inspiring weekend.

But, alas, for reasons inscrutable to all save God, I decided to not bring my camera. In the spirit of my triumphant return I've decided to share these recent pictures however.

Amia, a pink pig, and Grandpa B (the house you see in the background is for sale by the way)
.One candle left on Suzanne's birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Suzanne!

Hey! If you're a Baha'i youth between the ages of 15-22 you gotta check out this survey. You just gotta.

P.S. Aaah! The week has gotten away from me. Like a pig dipped in olive oil. We just got back from vacation and I wanted to post some stats, but now I'm leaving for a conference early tomorrow morning. Soon hopefully!